Staffing at the Mobile Metro Jail has been an issue for more than a decade and it's only getting more dire, according to Sheriff Sam Cochran.

In 2002, a study was done on the jail that recommended huge increases to staff levels at the facility.

At one point, the jail was down 47 officers from what it should have been. In several years, the department worked its way up to what was considered full staff for 1990s standards.

This year, 10 corrections officers and two inmate work supervisors were requested for a total of $669,534.27. In a plea two weeks before its budget meeting, Cochran addressed the Mobile County Commission. "Population has doubled and we're drowning over there," he said. "We're just waiting for the next big melee."

MCC denied the request for the 12 additional staffing positions at its September 23 budget meeting.

"I'm disappointed they weren't filled," Cochran told Press-Register/AL.com. "We asked for 12, and we easily need 40 for the inmate levels we have," he said.

Population has increased 220 percent since 1991 and staffing has not met that rise, per the sheriff.

The sheriff says something has to give, whether it means reducing the jail's population or expanding facilities.

"Mental health patients have skyrocketed because of Searcy closing and we don't have the facilities to treat and maintain those patients," he said."

He highlighted the need more space for suicide watch and an expanded booking area. The current booking area was designed for 800 inmates and the jail now has over 1,600. The sheriff says that's a safety issue.

Another factor in staffing challenges is that more is asked of corrections officers in their role in providing courthouse security, which means there are officers on duty away from the jail.

"We've got to reduce population and speed the process up in the court systems which doesn't seem to be working," Cochran said. He points to the Department of Forensic Sciences as a key issue in deadlocked cases.

"More than 1,365 cases are deadlocked," he said. "The state is taking more than a year for toxicology reports and that is unacceptable and disgusting," Cochran said.

He said he'd like to personally ask the governor to evaluate the funding situation for the DFS in order to speed up the court systems for the entire state, not just the struggling Mobile County Metro Jail.

"We are trying other ways." Cochran says he is working with the district attorney's office in order to look at new technology for drug testing that would validate a sample to be a drug that would then be admissible as evidence in court.

They hope that the technology would alleviate the backlog and then translate to less inmates waiting in cells.

The department is also working to speed up paperwork up and has made the indictment process smoother.

"The employees work so hard. It's the biggest surprise since I've become sheriff is witnessing the challenges they go through," Cochran said.

As for the commission, Cochran hope the budget can be amended to include some staffing.

"Commissioner Carl and Commissioner Hudson have toured the facility about three months ago," said Cochran. "They seemed to fully comprehend the seriousness of it and they both were sincere."

But again, something has to give, the sheriff says.

Commissioner Carl proposed to add the staffing, but Commissioner Hudson and Commissioner Ludgood voted against it due to lack of funding available.

"I can't manufacture money," Hudson said in the September 5 meeting.

"I've done a tour of the jail and it is so under-staffed," Commissioner Carl told AL.com/Press-Register. "It's a time-bomb."

Carl says he put a proposal together that would have allotted for the employees by taking money from insurance. Even though the proposal was rejected, he says there is still hope.

"We're not giving up," said Carl. "Right now, it is at best managed chaos and the employees there have my utmost respect."

Carl says he has reached out to the state level to see what other avenues may be available as well.

"We've got to get creative," he said.

He agreed with Cochran that facilities need to be upgraded as well.

"We're going to have to build a much bigger jail, we've got to support these people," said Carl.

Both Commissioner Carl and Sheriff Cochran agree that something has to give in Mobile County.

"We can't continue to provide the same level of services across the county and make ends meet. We have to cut back somewhere," Cochran said.

Cochran has been in police work for more than 30 years and is a graduate of the University of South Alabama.